Page 1 of 4KUS DVD WRITER HELP NEEDED!

I have just bought this machine on the recommendations from this site, but have come across some early teething troubles:-

[1] Connected to my (old) Sony TV with (old) scart leads, the picture when I`ve hooked up my source VCR (an aging but well maintained Sony) is plagued by interference in the form of faint wavy lines - is this likely down to using my old leads, or my television which is about 10 years old? Or possibly even a problem between the Sony VCR and the 4kus?

[2] The 4kus is primarily to make copies from my video tapes, but when hooking up the antenna for television at first glance this is very snowy - note I only have a mere analogue system with the five UK channels...

[3] I am concerned that my recordings to DVD+R disc do not play on my (again, old!) Pioneer DV-515 (creak!) - I would put this down to the age of this player, but I find other DVD+R discs recorded by others on different machines play fine on it! What`s the problem with these 4kus DVD+R recordings I am making then?? Does the Pioneer perhaps not like the 4kus recordings? Note, my DVD+Rs play fine on my Playstation 2...

I have finalised the discs as instructed for use on other machines, and am concerned my discs wont play on other DVD players as this is the main reason I bought it!

Any help much appreciated!!

Thanks

This item was edited on Saturday, 26th February 2005, 17:17

Any thoughts, you cats?

I have no end of problems with the 4Kus dvd recorder. I`ve had three from Asda and have now given up. I also wanted to back up my vhs collection.

I bought a new (albeit cheap) vhs player and scart leads to go with the new dvd recorder.

The first dvd recorder which is very easy to navigate recorded well enough but would often stick and jump for no apparent reason. It would appear to be the compression rate, but there is no way of knowing which tapes would and wouldn`t stick as a result I chewed up a fair few dvd discs. The 4kus help desk wasn`t very helpful and suggested dust on the lens, which didn`t inspire confidence, and then to take it back to Asda for a replacement. This I did, not before checking the vhs`s which were fine. I did notice that the jumping occured prior to pressing `go` to record when watching the vhs thru the dvd recorder (does that make sense?) as well as afterwards.

The second recorder seemed to have been opened previously and wouldn`t do more than play bought films.

The third player ruined new discs and wouldn`t let any recording happen. More annoyingly having copied a number of vhs bits and bobs on the first player it wouldn`t let me finalise the disc rendering it pretty useless.

Like the previous comment, anything I had finalised wouldn`t play on any other dvd player though will play on computers. I can`t recommend this product highly, because I can`t recommed it at all.

If anybody has any clues, I`d love to hear why the above seems to have occured - the stitcking and jumping.

Quote:
[1] Connected to my (old) Sony TV with (old) scart leads, the picture when I`ve hooked up my source VCR (an aging but well maintained Sony) is plagued by interference in the form of faint wavy lines - is this likely down to using my old leads, or my television which is about 10 years old? Or possibly even a problem between the Sony VCR and the 4kus?

That sounds more like RF interference between the aerial input and the output to the telly than SCART trouble. You still want decent leads.

Quote:
[2] The 4kus is primarily to make copies from my video tapes, but when hooking up the antenna for television at first glance this is very snowy - note I only have a mere analogue system with the five UK channels...

The 4KUS has a notoriously crap American-style tuner you have to manually sort channels with. You may have to delete dozens of snowy "ghost" channels to leave your strongest signals.

Quote:
[3] I am concerned that my recordings to DVD+R disc do not play on my (again, old!) Pioneer DV-515 (creak!) - I would put this down to the age of this player, but I find other DVD+R discs recorded by others on different machines play fine on it! What`s the problem with these 4kus DVD+R recordings I am making then?? Does the Pioneer perhaps not like the 4kus recordings? Note, my DVD+Rs play fine on my Playstation 2...

Compatibility isn`t one of those things can be guaranteed. The 4KUS interpretation of the DVD+VR standard (for video recordings) isn`t 100% compatible with the DVD standard, so some machines may rebel. Hopefully a firmware update in the future might sort things out, but I wouldn`t hold my breath.

And I wouldn`t swap my 4KUS. :B

J Mark Oates

---

The twins keep us on Alpha Centaurian time
-- a 37-hour day. Give it a few months --
you`ll get used to it. Or you`ll have a
psychotic episode.

Been there, done that, got the teeshirt

Thanks for these thoughts.

If the 4kus interpretation of DVD means not 100% compatibility with other machines (I understand no machines/formats are totally in tandem with each other), are there other budget machines that have a better percentage of inter-player DVD+R compatibility ?

My main concern is that my old Pioneer DV-515 will play DVD+Rs I have received from elsewhere, but not my own recordings made on my new 4kus...

I use decent Maxcell blank discs, by the way.

Appreciate any input on this !

Sorry to contradict, but Maxell discs might not be as high quality as you might think. Maxell users might disagree, but according to Videohelp, Maxell sources discs from a variety of suppliers and puts its name to quite a wide selection of dyes so it may well be the discs rather than your player compatibility.

Do yourself a favour, go to SVP and blow a fiver (+p&p) on a pack of {DV 3087} Datasafe Ritek (4x) DVD+R in Spindle Tubs of 25 @ £4.98. These are RitekR03 dye and work great with my 4KUS without any compatibility troubles.

J Mark Oates

---

The twins keep us on Alpha Centaurian time
-- a 37-hour day. Give it a few months --
you`ll get used to it. Or you`ll have a
psychotic episode.

Been there, done that, got the teeshirt

Ive had the 4kus for around three months now and had no problems at all with it.
Records from sky , tv and vhs no problem.
The interface is so easy even the wife can use it :)

I use datasafe dvdr ( from SVP) for anything permanent i want to keep,and phillips dvdrw disks as a replacement for the daily tasks of VHS and havent had one coaster yet.
As for compatability woks fine in our other two machines , the only problem i had early doors was forgetting to finalise a dvdr prior to loading into another machine!!!!!!! doh

One small criticism there is no means of passing the sky signal through the machine to my external amp to transmit in other rooms in the house.

hi just got one of these.. seems to play discs okay,,but tried to record last night with no luck.
it seemed to be recording, but when i came to play the disc it could seem to find anything... do you have to use the branded discs in the manual,, or will any do.
i used verbatium DVD+R 4 speed.. this disc is not in the list..

Thanks
Mark Green

Hi,

Just like jimbouk, I`ve had no recording problems at all since I got the 4kus 5 months ago.
I have been using these budget disc`s for the last 4 months and have never had a duff recording/coaster yet.

Can`t think why you should be having problems.

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th March 2005, 12:26